The information on this page is for the exclusive use of HBS staff. Media Rights Licensees should refer to the FIFA TV Extranet.

The key mission of HBS Booking is to fulfill MRL service requests and to subsequently schedule unilateral services and facilities up to and during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. This includes during the OFEs (Other FIFA Events) and the FIFA Confederations Cup.

HBS Booking distributes and collects all booking-related information to and from MRLs and coordinates the delivery of services and facilities with the appropriate HBS departments or service suppliers such as telecommunication operators. Booking is also responsible for transmitting detailed reports in order for HBS to produce accurate invoicing of services delivered to MRLs.

HBS BEST BOOKING PRACTICE

In order to offer an efficient one-stop booking process to MRLs, and to optimise the operational coordination and delivery of services, HBS sets up a centralised – therefore single – booking operation. This centralised booking office manages requests for services and facilities provided by HBS at the venues and at the IBCC as well as requests for matching telecommunication services. The latter includes services such as connectivity (telephony, ISDN, broadband) at the venues and at the IBCC.

Such telecommunication services are entirely marketed by HBS (from the management of the request to the invoicing and payment recovery), just like other services directly provided by HBS. Finally, the centralised Booking Office manages the marketing of satellite distribution service (worldwide satellite distribution of the multilateral coverage of all 16 matches), also referred to as the “World Feed Distribution” service.

All services marketed by HBS are listed in the relevant sections of the HBS Catalogue of Services (COS); the Booking Office produces the various sets of Booking Order Forms (BOFs) during the different phases of the booking process.

ONLINE SERVICES

The HBS COS, along with its different updates and appendices, is available online via the FIFA TV Extranet, http://extranet.fifa.com/tv. The Booking Order Forms are also available online and can be completed and returned to HBS electronically.

BOOKING OFFICE STRUCTURE

The HBS Booking Office includes the two following sectors, managed by the HBS Head of Booking who reports to the Director of the HBS Marketing Division:

Booking Front Office
The Booking Front Office has the overall responsibility for communication between the MRLs and HBS. The Front Office receives MRL requests for venue services and facilities as well as for transmission circuits between venues and the IBCC and for telecommunication connectivity at these locations. Once the requests are allocated by the Back Office, the Front Office confirms them to the MRLs and initiates the invoicing process.

Booking Back Office
The Booking Back Office is responsible for the allocation of requests for services received by the Front Office. The Back Office therefore processes each request in terms of feasibility and availability and consequently allocates the relevant resources to each request. Conflicting demands or demands exceeding the available resources are pointed out to the Front Office, who apply predefined priority rules or initiate the arbitration process.

BOOKING BEFORE AND DURING THE FIFA CONFEDERATIONS CUP 2009

Up until and during the FIFA Confederations Cup, the Booking Office was located in the HBS planning headquarters in Boulogne (Paris), France. It liaised from there with all the other HBS departments through one-on-one exchanges and regular coordination sessions. There were no booking offices at the venues nor at the IBCC. The venue Broadcast Information Offices (BIO) relayed booking-related matters to and from MRLs.

MAIN PHASES OF BOOKING PROCESS

The booking process included the following main phases, each of them characterised by specific procedures, documents and deadlines:

• Requests for 16-match packages.
• Requests for Group match (1-12) services.
• Requests for Second Phase match (13-16) services.
• Additional requests and requests for customised services.